Also see our associated blog, in which the Norman the
Norman takes us around Yorkshire to tell us about
sites of Norman origin or importance.
http://marcus.group.shef.ac.uk/meet-norman/
Our Postgraduate Organisers
Alyxandra Mattison is a doctoral researcher in the Archaeology
Department. Her research examines the changes in the social, legal and
funerary treatment of executed criminals across the Norman Conquest.
James Chetwood is a doctoral researcher in the History Department. His
project examines the transformation in the way English people were named
between 850 and 1350 and attempts to determine the societal, cultural and
linguistic changes that contributed to it.
Thank you also to Charles West who was the staff advisor on the project.
Thank you to our sponsors!
Postgraduate Public
Engagement Fund
Images of the Bayeux Tapestry from http://hastings1066.com/
CONQUEST 950
A celebration of the
anniversary of the Norman
Conquest
Friday 20 May
University of Sheffield, HRI Seminar Room
What did the Normans ever do for us? Norman-northerner
relationships in the post-Conquest period.
The Schedule
10.30. 6th Day Of 1066:
A Date with the Devil – Blame King
Harold for the Norman Conquest.
Ian Macgill (Grapevine Magazine)
11.30.
Vampires and the Norman Conquest: a Derbyshire
perspective.
Charles West (Sheffield)
Aleksandra McClain is a Lecturer of Archaeology at the University of
York. She specialises in the archaeology of churches and funerary
commemoration in the Anglo-Norman period.
This discussion be looking to gauge audience understanding and
perception of the Norman Conquest in the north and how it happened, and
then illustrate the ways that archaeology can add nuance to our traditional,
historically-based understanding of Norman-northerner interactions and
relationships after the Conquest. Please bring a phone or laptop with you so
that you can participate.
12.00. Playing Detective: Discovering Scribes in Eleventh-Century
England .
The Bayeux Tapestry: myths and messages
Christine Wallis (Sheffield)
12.30. Sheffield Castle – still at the heart of the city.
John Moreland (Sheffield)
14.00. Tasting the past: Unearthing the Chemistry of
Medieval Beer.
Lee Eales (Sheffield)
14.30. The Bayeux Tapestry: myths and messages.
Michael Lewis (British Museum)
15.30. Resistance: England after 1066.
James Aitcheson (Historical Novelist)
16.00. What did the Normans ever do for us? Norman-northerner
relationships in the post-Conquest period.
Aleksandra McClain (York)
Michael Lewis is Head of Portable Antiquities & Treasure at the British
Museum. He has published widely on the Bayeux Tapestry, particularly in
relation to the extent to which the Tapestry reflects ‘the real world of the
eleventh century’. He organised an international symposium on the
Tapestry ay the British Museum in 2008 and is a member of the comite
scientifique Tapisserie de Bayeux.
The Bayeux Tapestry is probably the most famous medieval artwork, yet
much about it remains enigmatic. In this talk Dr Michael Lewis (British
Museum) accesses fact from fiction, to explore what we know (for certain)
about its production, patron and date of manufacture, as well as examining
some key scenes in the Tapestry that have divided expert opinion.
Vampires and the Norman Conquest: a Derbyshire
perspective.
Charles West is a Reader in Medieval History at the University of Sheffield.
His research focuses on the Carolingian Empire, but also more widely the
dynamics of change in the early medieval world. He was also one of the
founding members of MARCUS.
Around 20 years after the Norman
Conquest, the village of Drakelow in south
Derbyshire apparently experienced
supernatural attacks that led to its
abandonment. This short talk discusses this
strange episode, and asks: was it connected
to the Conquest?
Playing Detective: Discovering Scribes in Eleventh-Century
England.
Christine Wallis is an honorary research fellow at the University of
Sheffield researching textual transmission and scribal behaviour in Old
English prose manuscripts.
One of the challenges and attractions of working with manuscripts is that
the texts they contain are unique to each manuscript. Every time a text was
(re)copied, the scribe had the potential to alter the text, and on occasion
provided a radical reworking of his exemplar. A close study of the choices
scribes made when copying allows us to uncover some of the processes
involved in manuscript compilation, and to investigate the training and
working practices of scribes writing English in the eleventh century.
Above Image: BL MS Harley 603 f.2v
Sheffield Castle – still at the heart of the city
John Moreland is a Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of
Sheffield. His research interests are in the use of writing and the role of
images through the Middle Ages and the transition from Antiquity to the
Middle Ages. He also head of the Castlegate Steering Committee.
In this presentation I will provide a brief introduction to the history of
Sheffield Castle, will illustrate various (piecemeal) archaeological
campaigns on the site from the 1920s – 1990s, and will describe the
current efforts both to secure funds for a major excavation and to situate
the Castle at the heart of city centre regeneration.
Resistance: England after 1066
James Aitcheson is an historical novelist particularly interested in the
Norman Conquest. His latest novel The Harrowing will be published by
Quercus on 7 July 2016.
Historical novelist James Aitcheson discusses
the English rebellions that followed the Battle
of Hastings, as well as the infamous campaign
known as the Harrying of the North, during
which Yorkshire was laid waste by the
Normans.
Tasting the past: Unearthing the Chemistry of Medieval
Beer.
Lee Eales is a researcher affiliated with the departments of Archaeology and
Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield. His work focuses
on the development of monastic brewing techniques in association with the
growth of monasteries after the Norman Conquest.
Understanding the drivers of changes in consumer preferences is complex;
this is especially the case when those changes occurred nearly 1000 years
ago. The Medieval period, (1066- 1530’s) was a time of unprecedented
fluctuations in population, technological advancement and social
organisation. Beer and beer production was a major contributing factor to
population growth as beer is largely free of human pathogens. At the start
of the middle ages, beers were flavoured with a mixture of herbs called
gruit. By the end of the Middle Ages gruit had been replaced by hops,
however, when this change occurred is a matter of considerable debate
amongst historians. With the modern analytical techniques at our disposal,
it is now possible to tease out the answers to some of these questions by
understanding the chemistry of beers in a historical context. Here, we
present a novel method for the targeted analytical fingerprinting of
chemical compounds for both hopped and un-hopped medieval beer found
on, and in the fabric of medieval ceramics. Ceramics from the Middle Ages
are not internally glazed thus the contents of the ceramics are in direct
contact with the surface of the clays from which the ceramics are made.
Clay minerals are usually negatively charged and thus have the capacity to
act as ionic exchange surfaces, immobilizing positively charged ions. The
flavour-giving alpha and beta acids and flavonoids found in beers are
aromatic, containing cyclic carbon structures such as benzene and toluene
rings. As a result of delocalisation of electrons in aromatic compounds, they
are predisposed to interact with charged surfaces and thus should be
immobilised indefinitely by unglazed ceramics as well as being protected
from the active site of any enzymes capable of degrading them. As a result,
these compounds are sorbed to the ceramic surface and subsequently can
be analysed by Matrix Assisted Laser Desorbtion/Ionisation Mass
Spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSi).
Welcome to Conquest 950!
Conquest 950 is a day of informal talks by academics researching the
Norman Conquest and writers interested in the Conquest. The aim is
to celebrate the 950th anniversary of the Norman Conquest and
explore its impact particularly on the north of England.
6th Day Of 1066: A Date with the Devil – Blame King
Harold for the Norman Conquest
Ian Macgill is editor of Sheffield’s Grapevine Magazine. For several years he
has been working on a series of six novels entitled The Rhyme of King
Harold. An actor can be seen reading excerpts from volume one
at www.rhymesofhistory.com.Volume two will be published during the
summer of 2016 .
Sheffield journalist Ian Macgill will explain that King Harold’s reign was
bound to end in tragedy. A glance at the date of his coronation tell us that. It
has Satan’s three sixes writ large: 6th day… of 1066. During this talk you
will learn that the power-hunger of Harold and members of his
family brought about the Norman invasion of
1066. There are many parallels with America’s
glittering and fiendish Kennedy clan of the 20th
Century, though they seem like pussycats
compared to their English counterparts. Some say
John F. Kennedy stole the presidency of the United
States. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t. But
Harold Godwinson definitely stole the throne
of England. He staged a coup in January of
1066, and changed the history of the world. END